ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: JUNE 7TH 2010


What a wasted opportunity this album wasn’t. For six years Ariel Pink circled the periphery of the alternative freak folk circuit after signing to Animal Collective’s Paw Tracks label in 2004. The process of re-issuing Pink’s records began with The Doldrums and despite high promise never managed to quite tap into the scene the way one would hope. Famous, or rather not, for his voluminous recording process and rough-tape method, hundreds of songs were recorded between 1998 and 2004, some of which formed the bulk of his re-issued records. Doesn’t this mean that he was pretty much absent from any sort of new recording process in the past six years? Possibly. Odd, then, that one of the biggest independent record labels should sign him up in late 2009. It turns out that sometimes a bigger budget and better recording equipment really are essential to breaking through, especially if you’re a lo-fi recording artist who would never otherwise be given such an opportunity.

It’s probably important to look back on the year since this album came out in terms of where Pink was just before its release. More ambitious records have been released in the last 365 days but there aren’t any which are more fun to listen to than this one. If Pink’s re-issued records are at times underwhelmed by their poor production quality, Before Today proved without a shadow of a doubt that a bit of elbow grease goes a long way. A number of tracks are actually reworked versions that appeared on older albums, namely Beverly Kills (from Scared Famous) and Revolution’s A Lie (formerly Evolution Is A Lie of Grandes Exitos) which assert that Pink’s not quite ready to abandon his bedroom studio tinkerings just yet. All twelve tracks here are wonders of musical construction; melodically joyous and instrumentally tight, the vast number of vintage styles recaptured are woven together seamlessly, giving the album an overall mystique which is all red light districts, hurricane hairsprays, late night movie shows and motorcycle rebels. For all its proficiency, it never comes off as big budget or even laboured over. It may be flamboyant but it also has a heart. Before Today is a timeless album, and one year hasn’t tarnished its gleam one bit.

Influenced as this record is, rehashing disposable pop melodies from the 70s and early 80s will only take you so far. Like all great albums that evoke the past, Before Today does so by proudly wearing the vintage upfront and centre while glossing the whole outfit over with an originality that makes it as present and interesting to listen to as any album released in 2010. Vocally, it’s as eccentric and expressive as the music itself. What infers repeated listening in these songs is the atmosphere that’s created; the hissing of homemade tapes six years prior has fizzled out but there’s still an overwhelming sense that you’re listening to a soundtrack to any bad movie from thirty years ago. Fright Night (Nevermore) is literally drenched in dazzling synths, drum beats pounding back and forth whilst the soft rock of Bright Lit Blue Skies forms a tight little pop ditty whirring around in the centre of its choruses. Round And Round forms the centre of the album and is a beautiful reminder of gentle pacing, never quite climaxing like you think it should but leaving you holding on in quiet anticipation. There’s too much happening in these songs to further warrant the lo-fi tag and it’s these little nuances that make for such an involved listening experience. Even the instrumental fuzz of the sexed-up opener Hot Body Rub and the crystalline splendour of Reminiscences are stunning; the former for its funky bass and sleazy pornographic saxophone, the latter for its inevitable chord structure, tumbling over in sequential repetition.

Before Today plays like a perfect pop record. To call it such is to perhaps do it an injustice, but so much here feels and plays just like pop music you heard when you were a child. If Pink sounds like a child when he’s singing, that’s probably to do with the marvellous way in which he manipulates his vocals as part of the instrumentation process, such as on L’estat (Acc. To The Widow’s Maid), which pretty much undergoes a spectacular transformation every thirty seconds. The sheer comedy and expressive magnetism of voice and guitar peak with Beverly Kills and Butt-House Blondies, both odes to Los Angeles. And then there’s the ones you forget about until later on; Can’t Hear My Eyes with its faux-string section and streamline delivery and Menopause Man with its creeping bass and black underbelly. There’s a simplicity and surreptitious format to a lot of the melodies upon initially hearing them, but now, after one year of listening, they unfold beautifully with an air of romanticism which befits an entire mood of carefree attitudes and ideals. One is reminded of Vice City’s Flash FM, collecting all the cheese and tack of those early 80s halkmarks. Yet this album is so much more than fixed nostalgia, shifting direction more frequently — often in the space of a single song — than most bands could manage (and manage successfully) over an entire career. One feels that whatever Pink does next will be pivotal in the overall trajectory of his career. Hopefully Before Today isn’t the peak, but a fine peak it be if so.